Women's Beauty Products Men Love

Brandon Nicholson, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, tries hard to keep his dark secret from his girlfriend. "It's getting to be a problem, and I'm afraid she is catching on," he says. "Every time I take a shower, I have to use her body wash that smells like chocolate. It's like I'm addicted or something."

A 6-foot-9-inch, bald-headed wall of muscle isn't the first person you would picture lathering up with a soap that smells like hot cocoa, or hiding the fact that he enjoys it from his girlfriend, who happens to work at Bath and Body Works. But Nicholson isn't alone. Seven out of 10 men use some product meant for the opposite sex as part of their grooming ritual, according to men's Web site groominglounge.com.

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2007 Fashion Week: Runway To Realway

If you already had a wee hunch the world was going to hell in a hand-basket, your suspicions would have found ample confirmation in the dark, depressing duds trotted out by designers at the Spring 2008 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York, just concluded. If clothes can be pessimistic, these were.

"Part of the way [my] collection is constructed has to do with the post-apocalyptic world," says Yeohlee Teng, designer and creative director of the Yeohlee line. "[My] collection is about my vision of [the] future, [what clothes will look like] when the world is destroyed and we are without machines to make the clothes."

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Over-The-Top Runway Looks

Richie Rich, designer of contemporary women's wear line Heatherette, knows how to grab the attention of a fickle fashion crowd. "One year, we had a 'Babes in Toyland' theme, so we created a dress made entirely of stuffed animals," he says of a recent collection. "That was definitely one of my favorites."

Rich isn't the only designer to send attention-grabbing pieces down the runway. During the men's Spring 2008 collections in Milan last summer, John Galliano swathed his models' bodies in bullet-proof vests. For his subsequent couture show in Paris, dresses were so intricately embellished they each weighed at least 40 pounds. Creations seen this week in New York include a wooden bathing suit and a 50-carat canary diamond necklace.

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